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A. S. HARTRICK. R.W.S.
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014504645
DRAWING
Edited by
F. MORLEY FLETCHER
DRAWING AND DESIGN. A School Course
in Composition. By Samuel Clegg. Cr.
4to. 15s. net.
BY A. S. HARTRICK, R.W.S.
With a Foreword by
George Clausen, R.A.
Le Dessin
C'est la probite" de l'Art
(INGRES)
LONDON
SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD.
PARKER STREET, KIN GSWAY.W.C.2
BATH, MELBOURNE, TORONTO, NEW YORK
1921
Printed by
Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd.
Bath, England
(£ 3 5"5"<//
To F. MORLEY FLETCHER in token of friendship.
VIII.
IX.
MEMORY DRAWING ....
SOME OTHER WAYS OF DRAWING
. 54
59
68
X. —
ORIENTAL DRAWINGS CHINESE AND
JAPANESE 80
XI. SOME NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF DRAWING
IN HIGH SCHOOLS 88
XII. THE ILLUSTRATIONS 98
Vll
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. DRAWINGS BY THE GREAT MASTERS
PLATE
1. DRAWING ON WHITE ATHENIAN VASE
2. HORSEMEN FROM THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON
3. DRAWING BY MANTEGNA
4. STUDIES FOR THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS BY LEONARDO
DA VINCI
5. HEAD OF A SOLDIER BY MICHAEL ANGELO
6. PEN DRAWING BY RAPHAEL
7. STUDY BY INGRES
8. DRAWING BY REMBRANDT
9. PORTRAIT OF THE EARL OF SURREY BY HOLBEIN THE
YOUNGER
10. PORTRAIT BY JEAN CLOUET
11. PORTRAIT OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BY FRANCOIS CLOUET
12. PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN LADY
13. PORTRAIT ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCOIS QUESNEL
14. DRAWING BY J. F. MILLET
15. DRAWING OF A BALLET DANCER BY DEGAS
16. DRAWING BY MENZEL
17. STUDY WITH PEN BY CHAS. KEENE
18. STUDY BY PHIL MAY
19. JAPANESE H.LUSTRATIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY
20. TWO GEESE FROM OLD CHINESE PAINTING
ix
II. DRAWINGS BY HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS
PLATE
21. DRAWING IN PENCIL : HORSES AND WAGON
22. DRAWING IN PENCIL : CHILDREN DANCING
23. DRAWING OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS
24. PLANT DRAWING IN PENCIL
25. PLANT DRAWING IN COLOUR
26. EXAMPLE OF SHADED DRAWING
27. EXAMPLE OF SHADED DRAWING
28. PERSPECTIVE STUDY IN OUTLINE
29. PERSPECTIVE STUDY SHADED
30. STUDY OF A CAST FROM THE ANTIQUE
31. STUDY OF HANDS FROM LIFE
32. DRAWING FROM LIFE
;
FOREWORD
HARTRICK
MR.work is well qualified, by his excellent
and his long experience, to write on
the subject of drawing. He needs no introduction
but, as I have been associated with him in organizing
the teaching of drawing in certain schools, he was
good enough to ask me to write a few lines by way of
preface. His book is a plea for sound teaching it :
who knew the world, and who knew what art stood
for. They saw the weaknesses of the schools of their
day, and tried to get back to simplicity, and directness
of expression, through the clear statement of the
essentials of form. Expression is the main thing, the
backbone of the art of all times and countries ; and
it rests mainly on drawing.
GEORGE CLAUSEN.
XUl
DRAWING
CHAPTER I. THE POINT OF VIEW
BEFORE writing on any art with a critical or
constructive aim in view, it is, I believe,
necessary to state, as well as one is able, what is
the point of view of the writer otherwise, the field
:
7
—
10
CHAPTER II. FOR THE " PLAIN MAN "
18
industriesand crafts dependent on design, the impor-
tance of a sound knowledge of drawing must be more
generally recognized.
I hope that these few instances I have given will
prove to the plain man something of the importance
of the issues that may lie hidden under the apparent
futility of teaching drawing.
19
3—(1098)
CHAPTER III. ON LEARNING TO SEE
place I intend to treat mainly of drawing
IN asthismost of us are familiar with it, i.e., deal-
ing with the appearance of things seen, and their
representation on a flat surface by drawing.
The first essential for a student of drawing is to
learn to see :by this I mean learn to see in terms
of his means of expression. When representing the
appearance of an object on the flat surface of the
paper drawn on, the student must realize that only
what the eye receives from one fixed point of view
and under one fixed set of conditions of light and
shade can be represented at one time. Nothing that
the mind knows beyond what the eye can see counts
in this representation.
In these days of photography, when nearly every-
thing that is printed is illustrated, and in spite of
the theories of Futurists and others, most people
no longer expect to see the four sides of a house shown
in one elevation at the same time ; nor do they, like
primitives and savages, expect to have both eyes
represented in a profile. I say " most people " be-
cause I remember that Mr. Joseph Pennell tells a
story of a business man who had given him a com-
mission to draw his works complaining because he,
Mr. Pennell, had not shown at one and the same
time both back and front of the premises in the
20
drawing. Most portrait painters, too, have had the
experience with otherwise intelligent people that,
while looking at the sitter more or less in front, they
will criticize in detail the portrait painted in profile or
vice versa, and see nothing wrong in so doing.
The point that must be grasped and remembered
is that the eye receives the whole impression at once,
much as the scene would be projected on the sensi-
tive film in a camera, but that then the memory
with its store of acquired facts steps in and the picture
to the mind untrained in drawing becomes a collection
of facts, colours and incidents in succession. Of the
importance of each of these as compared one with
another he has no means of judging until he attempts
to set them out on paper. The faculties of women
have long been recognized as peculiarly acute as
regards remembering a number of facts noted in this
way. Many readily remember minute details of dress
seen quite casually, or the peculiarities of someone
or something that has interested them but these
;
21
usually be better pleased by a representation of the
character as affected by the experience of fashion of
its own period. But even from a comparatively
slight or rude sketch from Nature a person or a place
can be recognized at once. So we find that it is not
the number of facts gathered nor any succession of
images that is of importance.
In what then does this learning to see consist ?
First of all in perceiving that it is impossible to see
anything by itself alone, but always in relation to
at least one other object. The result of these two or
more objects seen in their true relations to one another
makes a whole or picture that can be put down on
paper. According as this is done well or ill in draw-
ing, so will the illusion of the reality be conveyed to
another or not.
Very slowly, by constant watching and comparing
of points, the mind acquires the power to grasp this
idea and retain in the memory a picture of what has
been seen as a whole. It is a memory, moreover,
that is rapidly fatigued at first, so that it is well to
look twice at the model for every line placed on paper.
Begin with as few facts as possible, say, the silhouette
of the object to be drawn against a plain background.
At once there comes instinctive measurement of one
space against the other, then of the component parts,
with judgment of the different angles of inclination
of the lines and the distinctive character of any curves
in them. One should never copy one side of the
figure or object without thinking mentally of its.
bearing to the other. Trust the eye and try to set
these down at once. That the pupil should learn to
22
trust his eye always and everywhere is the first requi-
site in draughtsmanship. Any measurements should
be made afterwards to test and correct what has
been stated freely.
In drawing, two facts set out in true relation to
one another are of more importance than the collec-
tion of fifty incorrectly related. Yet all beginners
spend their efforts in collecting and copying facts
without much thought of the relations of each to the
others. The early training in drawing should there-
fore be in two dimensions only, indeed most children
appear to pass naturally through a stage of it. It is
comparatively easy to test errors in it because the eye
judges distance much more accurately in length and
breadth than in depth.
At the Slade School under Legros I was first
taught to draw with the point by the character of
the " contour," and not by the mass. In Paris, a
little later, I found drawing by the mass in charcoal
was mostly insisted on. I regret that at the time I
did not properly understand or appreciate to the full
the meaning of Legros' teaching, but I am now con-
vinced that his was the soundest principle of teaching
a student to see and so to draw. Kenyon Cox, the
American artist, in his book, the Classic Point of
View, has given a very excellent definition of this kind
of drawing. " Drawing," he says, " is a great expres-
sional art and deals with beauty and significance.
Its great masters are the greatest artists that ever
lived, and high attainment in it has always been rarer
than high attainment in colour. Its tools are line and
so much of light and shade as is necessary to convey
23
the sense of bulk and modelling, anything more
being added for its own beauty and expressiveness,
not as part of the resources of the artist."
It seems curious to me to-day to think that the
French, whose greatest draughtsmen have followed
this method, should have neglected it in the schools
of the eighties and nineties. I can only attribute the
lapse to certain efforts towards ultra-naturalism which
were then the fashion. It came to this, that there
was a pressing of the material beyond the limits at
which it will yield its most characteristic results, with
the usual defeat of its true purpose altogether. On
account of its constant demand for renewed sensi-
tiveness of the eye in judging the subtle variations of
the contour, the study of line becomes an effective
means to help the artist to arrive at an expression of
his own emotion in drawing, which after all is the end
he should be seeking.
Most of us who have wrestled with the art of draw-
ing have probably at some time found an idea which
seemed to unlock for us the door of difficulties, and
open out a new vista. Such an experience was mine
in the early nineties when I was working for the
Daily Graphic. At that time I used to accompany
Paul Renouard, the well-known draughtsman of the
Graphic, on various journeys in search of subjects in
the East End of London. One day he startled me
by saying in regard to the proper way of looking at
a subject for drawing " II n'y a rien que la silhouette,"
and went on to explain how in studying movement it
was necessary to take it at the beginning or end of a
phase, never in the middle then to watch the
:
24
;
27
CHAPTER IV. THE THIRD DIMENSION
now becomes necessary to consider what is
IT technically, perhaps, the greatest difficulty the
beginner in drawing has to face. I mean the repre- f
29
artists of the Renaissance was first attracted to the
study of light and shade by the small windows, placed
usually rather high up, which were prevalent in most
houses and castles of the period. This forced the
attention of the quick-witted on the extreme effect
of solidity and roundness produced by concentration
of light; and those who were artists would quickly
seek to reproduce the sensation. It seems probable
that the ancient Greeks must have been aware of these
facts: but possibly, from the lack of a sufficiently
permanent or freely-working vehicle of expression,
did not carry their study of them to completion.
Otherwise we should surely have seen signs of relief
in some of their polychrome vases, which present
the nearest approach to paintings, as we know them,
of anything that has come down from the great Greek
Period. Most likely, in common with the Egyptians
and Assyrians, the Greeks found it best to rely on some
form of bas-relief for their pictorial expression of the
Third Dimension. Here they were on sure ground
in the handling of materials of which they were
masters from very early times. It must be remem-
bered that the ordinary life of these peoples was
carried on largely out of doors, and that their climate
permitted the exposure of even finely-painted work
to the open air. Objects seen in full daylight always
appear flatter than when viewed indoors, so we should
expect a low relief in the art of nations living under
such conditions, and this in fact we do find invariably.
We know the Egyptians coloured their reliefs freely,
and probably the Greeks did so also, as they certainly
coloured their statues.
30
This manner of seeing and so of treating reliefs
which was practised by all these nations is precisely
the same as that which would be used to produce a
similar result in drawing, and the student of style
can find no better model to show where to place his
accents or how to concentrate his detail about them
than by studying any cast from the frieze of the
Parthenon.
There are those who will ask whether we accept
the stories that have come down to us extolling the
realism of paintings by Apelles, Zeuxis, and others,
such as that tale of the birds pecking at a fruit piece.
Such stories, common at all periods of Art, are gener-
ally disappointing when tested by fact, and are mainly
for popular consumption. I do not think the wax
paintings from Alexandria in the National Gallery help
us here : they rather suggest the traditions on which
the Byzantine and the Ravenna Mosaics were founded.
In Graeco-Roman painting there are plenty of
signs of the effort to give expression to the illusion
of reality and roundness, but none of atmosphere.
In Pompeii we come across some fine mural decora-
tion, mostly, however, on one plane still, rather
clumsy in handling, perhaps owing to difficulty with
the medium, and limited to a few colours which do
not seriously attempt to imitate Nature in its atmos-
pheric envelope. Very interesting it is too to mark
the beginnings of perspective. There is a picture of
the interior of a bakery in which the main lines of
perspective vanish towards the spectator instead of
away to the point of sight, just as we find it expressed
in certain Chinese and Japanese works of a similar
31
nature. I also remember a painting of a dungeon
with a beam of light piercing the darkness, the treat-
ment of which is conventional, or symbolical if you
like, in the most approved post-impressionist style of
to-day. I mention the last in case some of our young
men may wish to test the truth of that old saying,
" Nothing is new under the sun."
I must insist on the value of the examination of
historical aspects of the development of drawing,
because it is out of this study of the means by which
the first great masters solved the difficulties before
them that the serious artist will find the best
opportunities to clear a path for himself.
To return to the fifteenth century and the Renais-
sance in Italy, there we find Mantegna, perhaps the
greatest draughtsman of all the Primitives, working
out his own solution of the problems of the Third
Dimension in painting, and perfecting his sense of
style by the study of the antique remains then being
dug up all over Italy. Much of his work imitates
closely the appearance of a Greek or Roman bas-
relief, with colour added. At the same time, as a
sort of challenge to the Art world of his time, and as
the fruit of his own researches into Nature, he pro-
duced his celebrated painting of the " Entombed
Christ," foreshortened from the feet upwards, which
remains one of the most successful solutions ever
accomplished of this difficult aspect of the nude
figure. It is very doubtful, however, whether this
new study could have progressed so rapidly as it did
but for the appearance, nearly simultaneously, of
such remarkable personalities and artists as Leonardo
32
da Vinci and Michael Angelo followed almost imme-
;
33
It is probably something more than a coincidence
that both these great artists were sculptors as well as
painters. Raphael, as suggested before, consolidated
the results of the labours of both, and so laid the
foundation of what is known as the " Great Italian
School of Drawing," the traditions of -which have
affected drawing and at some time held the upper
hand in the Art of every nationality throughout the
Western world. In it the study of form is the begin-
ning and the end of everything, and the only tool
used is the point. Colour is disregarded altogether.
An object is looked at as if it were a white plaster
cast, on which all form and modelling is revealed by
light and shadows alone, just as in sculpture.
All was not discovered or accomplished at once,
even by innovators of such exceptional abilities.
Through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
experiment went on, till at the hands of Rubens,
Rembrandt, and Velasquez in particular, the appear-
ance of roundness together with the illusive effect of
the light and air about a figure in a room, was realized
with paint in a way that is never likely to be bettered.
—
To put it shortly the study of the effect of light on
objects up to about twenty feet from the eye was
finally solved.
Of the last-mentioned masters, Velasquez, the
greatest realist of the three, has left but few drawings.
The only one I have seen is in the Louvre, and closely
resembles those of Rubens in method. Since the
Renaissance there have been only two men who have
brought anything really new into the art of drawing
— J. F. Millet, the French peasant painter, and Edgar
34
Degas, who has been known chiefly as the painter of
ballet girls,though that represents but one phase of
his extraordinarily interesting art. Both men, on
their own showing, claim to be direct descendants of
the great draughtsmen of old, and have preached the
importance of the study of the tradition of drawing
above all other forms of Art study. The first derives
through Poussin, Rubens and Michael Angelo. The
second comes first from the Primitives, such as
Mantegna, and, later, through his master Ingres as in
the direct line from Raphael.
Millet, with a simplicity of speech as convincing
as that of his drawing, laid down this law for treat-
ment : "In Nature things stand up or lie down,"
and by his handling of these two facts he got with
his work a monumental effect which, but for its
inherent sympathy, would inspire awe, so elemental
are the emotions displayed. He began by observing
his figures at a long distance from the eye, when the
movement of a group can be seen and studied as a
whole, unimportant details being eliminated by the
intervening atmosphere. Starting from these con-
ditions he drew his pictures with this effect as his
front plane, gaining dignity and scale from the natural
simplifications so produced, because all the perspec-
tives belonging to this set of planes were not so violent
as if he had taken his foreground near to the eye as
is usually done by figure painters. Degas has studied
exactly the contrary effect. He uses a very close
perspective, thereby realizing the feeling of being
inside a room with people close around him, instead
of the old theatrical effect of depicting an interior as
35
4—(1098)
if a wall behind had been removed and one was
looking at a scene on a stage. This latter was the
method generally followed by Hogarth, Wilkie, and
all the genre painters of every nation till the arrival
of Degas.
There are hints of some of Degas' discoveries in
certain of the Dutch painters, in Vermeer of Delft,
for instance, and also de Hooghe :both these painters
I am told Degas has studied.
It is true that certain superficial aspects of the
work of Degas have become familiar to the general
public nowadays, with the reproduction of snap-
shot photographs in the daily press :points of view
that formerly would have been (indeed were) laughed
at as impossible. But Degas had observed and
registered what was important in these facts before
the instantaneous photograph was invented, more-
over he made use of them for new and subtle rhythms,
as well as to force attention on his methods of looking
at life. Using such close perspective with continual
foreshortenings it follows that he is a master in the use
of every means of rendering to perfection in drawing
the most difficult problems arising out of the Third
Dimension.
Another interesting record of the anticipation of
the discoveries of Science by an artist is the well-
known instance of how Aime Morot, the French battle
painter, observed and recorded in drawings made in
a riding school at Rome in 1870 all the movements
of the galloping horse which some seven years later
were rediscovered by photography and published by
Muybridge in California in 1877-8.
36
my sketch of the history
This, I think, completes
of the Third Dimension in Drawing. If anything
further is to be said on the subject to-day it would
point to a revolt from all renderings of the Third
Dimension, and a return to the most primitive forms
of Art again, in an endeavour to find a new road.
37
CHAPTER V. STYLE
like a fog.
38
In order to try to make my own position clear, I
would state that I hold that these names stand for
two impulses common to both Life and Art which are
always in opposition, acting and reacting the one on
the other through the centuries of civilization until,
at the hands of really great artists in either style,
they may take on new characteristics of permanent
value which are incorporated in either style for good
and all. Like the positive and negative poles of the
electric current this dual nature seems to reveal
itself with every phase of Art if we look but deep
enough. The primary impulse of it all, we believe,
is emotional, but one wonders in noting the facts
whether the variations are just a matter of chance,
or whether there is here the evidence of forces acting
creatively like sex.
The Classic, born of the Greek and bred up in the
tradition of the Italian Renaissance, blossoms out
with all the amenities of the South. In character it
is logical, decorative, synthetic. All the great names
of the Renaissance and, equally, most of the lesser,
bear witness to its power for excellence.
The Romantic, child of the soaring Gothic genius,
seeks contrast of light and darkness, as well as some-
thing of the sunset glow, and suggests the daring
spirit of the North. Its character is individual,
impressionistic, mysterious. An etching by Rem-
brandt will touch some of its resources on the one
hand, and a thirteenth-century glass window those
on the other.
The Classic is the more useful for all general pur-
poses to the ordinary man. It can be analysed and,
39
therefore the principles of it can be taught. It
demands order, discipline clear thinking out
and the
of problems. Indeed the only safe method yet
it is
40
who have given study to the matter it is agreed that,
lacking beauty of some sort, there can be no style
whatsoever. At the same time the question " What
is beauty ? " is hedged round with much the same
43
anything be ruder or more opposed to the obvious
beauties of the human form than the drawing of
an early window ? Yet is there any form of art what-
ever in which the expression of indescribable emotion
of beauty is more marvellously conveyed ? This is a
miracle in itself. ,
The sense of individual character, too, is more
marked in this northern work, and the charm to be
found in rendering the variety of character becomes
of more importance to the artist than the perfection
of form alone.
Holbein certainly gained in simplicity and breadth
by looking at the Italian methods in his later work,
but he remains a northern in vision to the end. Yet
surely nothing more dignified, nay beautiful, in fact,
especially when dealing with the portrayal of certain
young English feminine types, in spite of an uncom-
promising realism of method, is to be found anywhere
than in the great series of drawings by him at Windsor.
Again, the kind of emotion expressed in the
Ancient Mariner by the line " He held him with his
ghttering eye " is peculiarly attractive to another
type of the Romantic, as witness the work of Durer
and his followers.
Finally there remains one more form of beauty,
one that is common to both Classic and Romantic
Schools, to be considered in relation to style, namely,
beauty of craftsmanship and execution. On this
point it is clear that the execution of all great works
of art is as marvellous in its perfection and for its
purpose as is the emotion expressed by it. Further
I hold it safe to say that it is impossible to express
44
the finest emotion in Art without superlative command
of craft or technique.
Let us try to consider such a design as the " Creation
of Man " by Michael Angelo on the roof of the Sistine
Chapel. A photograph of it can be easily obtained.
It is not possible to conceive movements of the figures
of the Almighty and Adam (touched to life by the
finger of God) more simple or more magnificent. Yet
both figures seem to have been produced with such
ease that the question of how they were done hardly
arises : this proves the perfection of the means used.
The figure of Adam is about 12 ft. long. The late Sir
Charles Holroyd, who had an opportunity of examining
it, close at hand, from a scaffold put up for cleaning,
45
CHAPTER VI. ON THE TEACHING OF
DRAWING
ALLsupport
that have written here has been mainly to
the case
I
the teaching of drawing of
with the point, particularly in its early stages, in the
manner first thrashed out into its simplest essentials
by the masters of the Italian Renaissance. But the
first thing of all for the student to realize is that there
is no short or easy way to the goal. Anyone who
pretends to teach a way of drawing in the sense of
making a short cut should be suspect. What we can
and should teach is how to see things in the terms
of one's artistic means of expression, and in relation
to one another. Drawing is solely a matter of vision,
therefore I say " trust your vision " and draw what
you see, not what you know of things seen.
It is better drawing and better art to set down two
facts on paper truly in relation the one to the other,
than to collect fifty facts indiscriminately as the
uninitiated always try to do. To begin with, do not
confuse the pupil with too many things at once, but
let the tools be pencil and white paper. These are
all that are necessary. When proper mastery of
these materials has been acquired, by all means let
the pupil venture to the exploration of other means
of expression, such as charcoal, brush, or the poker
if you will, but not till then !
46
Many of us know a drawing by a master when we
see one, but what the clever young man especially
does not see are the difficulties that have been over-
come to produce it. At first he is often sure he has
found out another way that is just as good, in fact
better. The trouble is that the " just as good " does
not last, as he will find out perhaps when it is too late
to mend. Further, I am of the opinion that if we
want to do any real good we must begin at the very
bottom and build up slowly from there. From what
I know myself, I believe that if we could establish
a simple and sound system of teaching drawing in
our primary and secondary schools the problem of
the art and technical schools would solve itself.
The first of the difficulties in the way is the matter
of the supply of Art teachers. Up to the present
time drawing has been too often the Cinderella of all
the classes in a school, and it was thought that almost
anyone could teach it to children. When we can
make the position of the Art teacher to be taken as
seriously as that of the teacher of other subjects,
then we shall find the type of teacher improve also
(it has been improving steadily of late), and the pro-
48
whatever she tried to show them. There is the
trouble.A child, till recently, in most cases was
leftto pick up what aesthetic education it might,
from all sorts of contradictory sources, and the result
was " confusion worse confounded."
In reality it is worse to teach bad Art than not
to teach it at all.
nature was also observed in this art and that Japanese children were
certainly introduced to drawing by being taught to copy the works
-of their master painters in all three styles.
49
said much the same thing, " II faut apprendre a
peindre d'apres les maitres et n'aborder la nature
qu'apres."
I should like to see an experiment on similar lines
carried out in one of our secondary schools by an
able Art mistress. It would have to be continued
for three or four years to be of value in any case
;
5—{1098)
days of industrialism and hurry it is more than ever
important to have places where fine things that have
been done in Art can be seen and studied at leisure
and in greater detail than in museums, and where
there are people trained to understand and point out
to students what has been accomplished in Art by
master minds of the past. The possibility of working
in such surroundings thus becomes of importance in
developing the taste of the pupil and if he has the
;
53
CHAPTERVII. MY OWN EXPERIENCE
OF DRAWING
spite of Bismarck's advice that it is always
IN preferable to have your experience at the expense
of other people, a man must always speak more con-
fidently from experience that is his own indeed on :
64
;
67
6—<1098)
CHAPTER IX. SOME OTHER WAYS OF
DRAWING
HAVE now done my best to state the case for the
I Italian method of drawing with the point, as in
my belief it is the best for teaching purposes, and the
best, therefore, for beginners. All other methods can
follow from it quite easily and, I believe, have actually
done so. has the added advantage that its tech-
It
nique (of the simplest) is entirely within the control
of the artist. No tempting accidents lurk ready to
lead him astray, but every mistake shows up clearly
if he sincerely desires to judge for himself of his success
79
:
82
" Thus the Japanese adore natural objects not so
much on account of their external beauties as for
their efficiency in suggesting mental reflections. Strange
as it may sound personification is rarely found in
86
Kioto, which represents incidents in a cock-fight.
Here the minute rendering of varied character in the
types is amazing, witness especially the smile on the
face of the man looking at the cock in the cage, rendered
with a boldness and economy of means that recall
some drawings by Rembrandt combined with just a
touch of the modernity of a Phil May. These belong
to the Kama Kura period, 1186-1335 a.d.
87
CHAPTER XL SOME NOTES ON THE
TEACHING OF DRAWING IN
HIGH SCHOOLS
may be well now to consider a few of the diffi-
IT culties that may be anticipated in carrying out a
training of the kind just sketched, and how they may
be overcome. The most obvious one is that of a
training in " taste," so many are the opinions as to
what constitutes good taste or bad. Most people
believe that their own taste is adequate to their needs
and better than their neighbour's, and in education
they seem to expect it to possess the attributes of
a boot-polish. It is a delusion " Good taste," like
!
MEANS OF TRAINING
I must next consider the means to forward such
a training. First of all, I would recall to all who
may be placed in authority the saying of Francis
Bacon, Lord Verulam, that those who have power
should choose the position " not of dictators (whose
word shall stand) but of consuls to give advice."
MISTRESSES
that the results to be aimed at are not
I believe
too attainment, when the training of the
difficult of
children is guided by mistresses who know their
business. I mean by this, mistresses who can both
draw themselves and know how to teach. But the
first condition that must be conserved in the drawing
up of any system of teaching is that it should be one
in which the teachers can preserve their initiative in
actual practice, and that they shall always feel inclined
to use it. For these reasons the syllabus must be
<irawn widely, so that every teacher can find scope
89
to get the best work out of herself and her pupils,
choosing in detail the directions she feels most com-
fortable as regards her own talent. I would also
insist emphatically that only girls of real ability
should be encouraged to take up this work, and I am
convinced that they will find this kind of teaching
both inspiring and better worth while than the severe
competition of the commercial market or the produc-
tion of little pictures which few people want. To do
their best work, however, they must have leisure and
encouragement also to practice and exercise their
talents privately, otherwise they must grow stale.
Some have expressed the fear that the monotony of
teaching children and the disappointment of seeing
the promising ones constantly passing away is dull
and disheartening for girls who have real talent. I
deny that this need be so. Undoubtedly the most
valuable teachers are those who are really accom-
plished in the work they are teaching. To teach
properly means to clear one's own mind, for it is
impossible to convey anything clearly to others, and
particularly to children, unless one has sifted and so
simplified what one does know. In this sense teaching
becomes most valuable to the teacher.
Again, anyone who can draw will not do to teach
children. She must be one who has also been trained
to teach them.
The general course of training for drawing mis-
tresses in primary and secondary schools which has
been worked out by the Training Colleges is satisfac-
tory on the whole, and presents few difficulties up to
Stage iy. It is after this that the real difficulty
90
begins, as we have discovered in the Art Schools.
In my experience too many mistresses have no definite
goal in view, beyond the handing on to their pupils
some little technical accomplishment which they
themselves have acquired. It is here that the initiative
of the born teacher will find its opportunity.
In teaching beginners to draw it is necessary to
give as models only such objects as have a definite
form. Construction is necessary to good drawing
and you cannot teach construction from objects that
are ill constructed. For this reason, after the kinder-
garten stage toys should not be used as models. In
these early stages there is no need that these models
should exhibit form of a subtle kind, but it should be
form that owes its existence to some quality that
makes it useful.
Proceeding forward from here, the pupil should be
—
led by easy stages to form that is studied to, say,
the drawing of a Greek or any good hand-thrown
pot, and so on to the cast or plant-drawing from
Nature.
When they have reached the head, some early
Florentine busts or reliefs will probably be found
more stimulating than the Greek. The latter requires
experience of drawing from the " life " itself as well
as some knowledge of what Art is, as distinct from
Nature, before the beauties of its simplifications will
reveal themselves. A light background to the model
will be found best for beginners. An object of one
colour, and that not dark, should be used, because
the revelation of form by light and shade is thus the
less impeded. It cannot be repeated too often that
7a— (1098)
drawing depends upon seeing clearly, and it is impos-
sible to convey clearly to others what one does not
understand because one has not clearly seen it oneself.
As said before, pencil and white paper are the
best materials to use to start with. The use of char-
coal and the brush is better postponed until real
command of these simple materials has been obtained.
All my experience goes to prove that those schools
which have their system of teaching well organized
and disciplined in the earlier stages produce the best
work in the later stages. Up to 10 or 11 the pupils
can be allowed to draw rather as they please but;
MEMORY DRAWING
by our memory of fine things that we are
It is
able to compare and make for ourselves a standard,
and so to judge of what is good or bad. The training
of the memory, therefore, both for form and colour,
becomes of real importance in the educational scheme
I propose. It is here that the so-called " imagina-
tion " drawings of children have their proper place.
" Imagination," as I have explained before, is the
"
wrong word. They ought to be called " memory
drawings. Frankly, so treated, they are stimulating
93
and of great educational value to the child. In the
ordinary cases the difficulty is that most such draw-
ings are memories of things seen by the children in
favourite picture books. Every teacher of drawing
has been shown drawings of " fairies " as evidence of
wonderful imagination in children. They are all very
much alike in their general characteristics and rarely
show any original thought or observation.
Much more rarely does one see the work of a child
who has eyes to see for himself. When one does,
however, the freshness of observation and the na'ivetS
of expression excites both the imagination and admira-
tion of the elders. This is the thing to cultivate by
every means in our power.
At first it will be enough to train the memory for
facts in relation to one another as in ordinary drawing;
COLOUR
Colour is most important in any educational
scheme. It is more decidedly a gift or instinct than
drawing, and therefore it is more difficult to draw up
94
rules for its teaching. But as the ear can be educated
to a nicer distinction of sounds in music, so the eye
can be helped to a more sensitive appreciation of
shades of colour.
I recommend as a sound practice the tinting of
outline drawings with flat washes in their local colours,
more particularly in plant drawing, where it is most
obviously simple and effective. At almost any time,
however, it tends to render the object drawn more
intelligible to a beginner. Explorers tell us with
general unanimity that savages can rarely recognize
a line drawing in black and white, but will usually
quickly do so if it has been coloured with its local
tints, and indeed the principle included in this seems
to be a natural one to most children when they first
attempt drawing. For a training of the colour-sense
in girls, however, I am convinced that embroidery
presents the best means. I strongly advise, therefore,
that embroidery should be encouraged in all girls'
schools. Most girls take to it naturally indeed the
;
97
CHAPTER XII. THE ILLUSTRATIONS
102
I.
DRAWINGS BY
THE GREAT MASTERS
8— (1098)
fj^r^MlMgf^
I. Drawing on one of the white Athenian vases (date about 500 B.C.)
in the British Museum. The quality of the drawing on these vases
varies, but that on the finest of them presents the most marvellous
use of pure line decoratively and sensitively that has been accom-
plished by man. This is drawing in two dimensions in perfection.
To appreciate its subtleties, the originals themselves must be studied,
because no reproduction will do justice to the vital qualities of the line.
'-.:l '
VII. Study by
Ingres in British
Museum for painting of " The
his
Golden Age." I give it in this place to
illustrate the continuation of the tra-
dition of Raphael into modern times.
The methods used are practically
identical in each.
British Museum. [Photo by Donald Macbeth.
9—(1098)
IX. Portrait of the Earl of Surrey, by Holbein the younger, from the
Royal collection at Windsor. For command over his line and making
it express every varied characteristic that he desired, no one has sur-
passed, if ever equalled, Holbein. In this drawing, note the subtle
variations in the drawing of each eye, the nose, the line of the mouth.
Also the exact curve in which the drapery falls over the shoulders,
thus giving the exact thickness of the body. The original drawings
are mostly done on a flesh-coloured ground. From the way this is
washed in, we learn that Holbein designed each hand for the exact
space it finally filled. The details of the features are touched in with
red chalk, and the modelling and weight of colour in eyes, hair, and
hat added with black chalk.
British Museum. [Photo by Donald Macbeth.
DRAWINGS BY
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS
XXI. From a drawing in pencil by Phillipa Castle (age 13).
(Queen Anne's School, Caversham. Drawing Mistress, Miss Moxon.'
'
"\
XXIII (a), (6), (c), (d). These drawings of everyday objects, which combine lessons
in construction and perspective, together with plant drawing, are part of a set
of five drawings sent up for the Girls' Public Day School Trust Certificate for
proficiency in Stage III by Brenda West (age 15). This is the first stage in
which there is an examination. They were awarded a pass with distinction.
I give them together here to show the sort of objects that are useful for
instruction and the sort of disciplined drawing that can be made from them
with advantage.
{Brighton High School, G.P.D.S.T, Drawing Mistresses, Miss Waugh and
Miss Comock.)
11 —(1098) 20 pp.
XXIV. Plant drawing, an example of the use of
outline alone, by M. Collister.
(Wimbledon High School, G.P.D.S.T. Drawing Mistress,
Miss De Lisle.)
XXV. Plant drawing in colour. Note the outline has first
been carefully drawn in pencil. M. Joyce Watkins, age 16.
(Ipswich High School. G.P.D.S.T. Drawing Mistress,
-Miss Fletcher.)
p»
'^
XXVI. Example of shaded drawing of simple objects, excellently varied for shape and
character, by Mollie Goodwin (age 14).
(Queen Anne's School, Caversham. Drawing Mistress, Miss Moxon.)
XXVII (a). Examples of progression for the intro-
duction to the study of form. Shaded drawing of
Greek pot, by K. Rose (age 15).
(
Ipswich High School.)
1U— (1098)
XXIX. Perspective drawing from Nature (shaded), by
J.Holleby (age 15 and 1 months).
1
'&
Ml
XXXI. Study of hands from life (Stage IV), by Joan H. Sims (age 15).
(The Belvedere School, Liverpool, G.P.D.S.T. Drawing Mistress,
Miss Laverock.)
I